Protection
by Tmae3114
Summary: "Each of those lights is a child, and good or bad, naughty or nice, we protect them," Even in the bleakest times, there were believers, and weakened though they were, the Guardians would protect the children, until there were no children left.


**Gah! Sorry, sorry, sorry! I uploaded the wrong document as the fic the first time around! I have no idea how I didn't notice it, so thanks to CrunchbiteNuva for bringing it to my attnetion! Again, so, so sorry for meesing it up!  
_This _is the actual fic. Again, I am so sorry! And embarassed...**

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**Disclaimer: Neither Young Justice nor Rise of the Guardians belong to me. I only just got the DVD for the latter yesterday.**

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"Mummy! Daddy! Look! Look at all the food! An' there's clothes too!" Bart exclaimed, rushing forwards to the pile in the middle of the room.

"Looks like Santa paid us a visit," Don commented.

"Who's Santa?" came Bart's muffled voice from within the gigantic green jacket he was pulling on. Meloni walked over and knelt down by him, turning the jacket around so that he had it on the right way and rolling the sleeves up so that they didn't hang past his wrists. Don chuckled as he lifted Bart up into the air, the oversized jacket flapping like a cape. He sat down on one of the rather rickety chairs that they had, and deposited the five year old on his knee.  
For hours, Don and Meloni regaled their son with the tales of Christmas and Santa, from the Nativity to the tales of Rudolph, and throughout it all, Bart's eyes were wide and a smile on his face.

And just outside the family's tiny sanctuary, a laugh resounded and the clatter of hooves echoed as a sleigh took off into the night.

* * *

Bart learned to _wonder._

* * *

"'M _hungry,"_ six year old Bart moaned, tugging on his dad's hand.  
"Need _food,"_

"Don't worry Bart, there'll be food," Don reassured him, just as he caught sight of some brightly coloured eggs nestled among the rubble.  
"Ah, there they are,"

"How'd they get there?" Bart asked in amazement, watching as his father pulled them out and handed one to him.

"The Easter Bunny left them for us," Don replied, smiling as he watched Bart turn the white egg with a red lightning bolt around and around, tracing the red with a finger.

Later that night, tales of Easter would be told, and the first blossoms of something previously almost foreign to him would begin to flower in Bart.  
And just as that happened, a rabbit hole would open outside and a shadow would drop through.

* * *

Bart learned to _hope._

* * *

"Mummy, mummy, look! I lotht a toof!" Bart exclaimed, holding the incisor up for his mother to see.  
Meloni took it with a smile.

"Why, you took good care of this! Make sure you put it under your pillow," she told him, pretending to hold it up to the light.

"Why?" the six year old asked, tilting his head.

"Because if you do, the Tooth Fairy will come," she told him, pressing the tooth into his palm and closing his fingers over it. "And then she'll leave you a gift,"

"A gift?"

"Yes, a gift. Maybe a small biscuit, or something to help keep these grubby fingers clean," she held out his free hand and pretended to wrinkle her nose as the filth, though they were only a little bit dirty, and then closing her own hand around it. Bart giggled.  
"Now come on, there's nothing for us to find here, so let's get back to the shelter before the patrol's start,"

"Okay!"

As mother and son left, a single shadow floated in the background, before it disappeared with the hum of rapidly beating wings and a flash of blues and greens.

* * *

Bart learned to _remember._

* * *

"Don't wanna sleep!" Bart exclaimed, dodging out of the way of his mothers arm and laughing as she tried to catch him again.  
"Don't wanna go to bed!"

Don caught him from behind, and lifted him up into the air, tickling him as he did so.

"Put...put me...do...own!" Bart wheezed between laughter, kicking and flailing his legs. Don swung his son sideways, and dropped him onto the bed. He went to get up again, but Meloni sat down next to her son and shook her head.

"Now, now Bart. If you stay up too late, the Sandman won't get to come," she chided.

"Who?" Bart asked, looking to his dad for an explanation.

"He brings you dreams Bart," Meloni explained, running a hand through his hair as he lay down.  
"So go to sleep, or he might end up missing you,"

"Okay," he said, yawning as he wriggled under the blanket.  
"Night night!" he called as he parents left the room.

"Good night Bart," they replied.

A single golden stream of sand slipped into the room, and swirled above the sleeping boy's head, taking the form of two golden figures running side by side as the world around them whipped by.

And outside the window, a golden figure smiled as he watched.

* * *

Bart learned to _dream._

* * *

"No, no! That's snow! It's _dangerous,"_ Bart insisted, as his dad wrapped him up warmly.

"Not _this_ snow dear," Meloni said, smiling as a few pristine snowflakes drifted onto her outstretched tongue.  
"This is Jack Frost snow,"

"Jack...Frost?"

"He brings clean snow and ice, so that we don't always have to watch out for the poisons," Don explained, taking his son's hand.  
"Now, you wanna see what it's like?"

"Yeah!"

A few moments later, snowballs would fly, and a blue-clad white haired boy would dance through the battle between mother, father and son with laughter.

* * *

Bart learned _fun._

* * *

Blue Beetle landed with a thump, advancing towards menacingly as Bart clung to his mother and whimpered, the tiny shelter behind them no longer a sanctuary.

A dark figure laughed as he melted away into shadows.

* * *

Bart learned to _fear._

* * *

When things took to their worst, he stayed strong. He clung to the things he had learned.  
He still had wonder, saw it in every, tiny miracle every day.  
He still had hope, felt it every minute, every day.  
He still had memory, and the better times before could never be taken from him.  
He still had dreams, and through them he could feel his speed.  
He still knew fun, whenever the beetles weren't looking.

But there was also still fear, and that held him back.  
But that fear wouldn't last for long.

* * *

He could hear voices, on the other side of the hill. He clung to the few clumps of grass and pressed himself flat against the ground. It might be guards, and if it were he couldn't risk it. He was only just _free. _He couldn't go back, he _couldn't._

"...round here somewhere!" a voice said. He could barely make out the others, but straining his ears he could catch a few words like 'child' and 'believer' but not much else.

There was a hum of wings, and he hesitantly looked up to meet a pair of magenta eyes looking back at him.  
"Found him!" she called down the hill, hovering in front of him as he watched wide eyes and mouth agape.

A few moments later, four other joined. His eyes flickered over all of them, and he blinked, then rubbed his eyes and looked again.

"You're...and you're..." he stuttered, rubbing his eyes again just to make sure.  
"This...this is real right? I'm not dreaming or something, am I?"

"Oh no," Jack Frost said, with a smile growing on his face.  
"This is very, very real,"

In that moment, all fear of being caught dissipated, and he felt like everything was going to be okay for the first time in years.

Well...and he fainted. But that was beside the point.

* * *

"I don't know if I can do this," he admitted, looking between the Guardians and feeling nervous.  
"It's...it's a big mission and I don't know if I can..."

"Of course you can Bart," Tooth said, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, you think we'd be here encouraging you if we had any doubt? Kid, we _know_ you can do this," Bunny reassured.

Sandy nodded, giving him two thumbs up and a rapid flash of pictures above his head too fast for the others to decipher, but he got the message loud and clear. _You can do it._

"You are good boy, Bart, strong boy, you _can_ do this," North reaffirmed, crossing his arms.  
"And don't you disagree, or it is naught list for you! It would be shame for Jack to lose record,"

"Hey, I thought you said you wiped the slate clean!" Jack interjected, giving North a fake affronted look. Then he turned back to the nervous boy in front of him.

"Bart, look," he began, kneeling down level with the boy, though it wasn't hard as Bart was now nearing fourteen.  
"We haven't had as strong a believer as you since Jamie Bennett. Like North said, you're a good kid, a strong kid, and _you can do this._ You've believed in us, against all odds, no matter what, so now let _us_ believe in _you,"_

He nodded.  
"Thanks," he croaked, blinking back the water beginning to well up in his eyes.

"Actually, we have gift for you," North added in.

"Really?"

"Right here! You're going to need these," Tooth chirped, holding out a golden box to him. The boy took it with shaking hands, running a finger over the delicate engravings and letting out a choked laugh as he saw the face looking back out at him from the end.

He looked up at the Guardians again, feeling tears well up in his eyes that he didn't bother to blink back, unsure how to react as they watched him expectantly.  
Eventually, he settled for sobs of joy as he hugged Tooth as tight as he could.

When they separated, all of the Guardians were smiling.

"I'm...I'm going to fix this," Bart promised.  
"I'm...I'm going to back in time and fix what happened,"

"We know Bart," Jack said, nodding slightly.

"So you might want to go and get started," Bunny added, giving the boy a look.

"Y...yeah," Bart replied, clutching the tooth box tightly in his hand. He nodded to them, and then sped back to the time machine and continuing work on it.

The crunch of feet over rubble behind him.  
"How's it coming?"

"Almost finished," he replied.

_I'm not going to let you down,_ he repeated in his head, standing up.

_I _will _fix all of this._

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**So, I got the Rise of The Guardians DVD yesterday, and this idea wouldn't leave me alone the naughty, naught little plot bunny, so I wrote it and posted it and I hope you enjoyed.  
I'm not sure when you can expect updates for anything else I've written, so sorry about that.**


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